Is Amazon giving a pay raise in 2022?

Amazon is handing out pay raises and new benefits for its warehouse workers across the country. Amazon said its average starting wages are now $19 an hour, up from $18. Warehouse employees now earn between $16 and $26 an hour, depending on position and location.

Amazon's new benefit, Anytime Pay, allows workers to access their pay instantly at any time during the month. The online retail giant is also seeking to advance its workers' careers through the Amazon Intelligence Initiative, which will place 300,000 employees in a 12- to 14-month development program to place them in AWS engineering roles.

The news comes as some Amazon workers have been seeking to unionize and as the company faces criticism about working conditions in its warehouses. A 2021 study showed that Amazon workers are seriously injured at twice the rate of other warehouses. Four Amazon warehouse workers died in separate incidents this summer, prompting an investigation by the US Department of Labor.

Amazon earlier in September expressed condolences to the families of the deceased. "Each of these tragic incidents have affected our teams greatly, and we are providing resources for families and employees who need them," Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson said at the time. "Our investigations are ongoing and we're cooperating with OSHA, which is conducting its own reviews of the events, as it often does in these situations."

Amazon has said the increase in workplace injuries occurred in part due to the pandemic, which led the company to hire tens of thousands of additional workers. Injured warehouse workers have also complained of facing difficulties in getting benefits and care covered by Amazon. 

"We take the health and safety of our team seriously and, while we aren't perfect, we don't believe these few anecdotes represent the experience of our more than a million front-line employees," Amazon previously said in a statement to CNET. "When a member of our team does have an issue, we work hard to help with their unique concerns, including issues with compensation, benefits or accommodations."

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Workers at Amazon warehouses across the country will receive hourly pay raises, the company told employees on Wednesday.

Wages will increase by roughly $0.50 to $1 an hour, according to workers at two facilities who were shown presentations of the new pay schedule and screenshots shared on social media.

An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about whether all of its nearly 750,000 US warehouse employees are getting a pay bump.

The company has nearly 900 fulfillment facilities in the country. Amazon has sought to balance trimming costs across its warehouse network with an increasing need to retain employees. The company admitted earlier this year that it had overbuilt during the initial onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. Executives are meanwhile worried that the company's high turnover rate will cause Amazon to run out of people to hire.

Amazon employees of all types have been agitating for higher compensation for years, adding pressure on the company to respond.

These new warehouse worker raises the raises go into effect in early October, according to one presentation Amazon made to staff. 

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Amazon on Wednesday said it is raising the average starting pay for its warehouse workers and delivery drivers to more than $19 an hour, up from $18 previously, at a time when union pushes continue to spread across several of its facilities.

With the increase, which takes effect next month, Amazon’s frontline employees in the United States will earn between $16 and $26 per hour depending on their position and location in the country, the company said.

Los Angeles, CA - June 23:Nurses Grace Cordovez, 31 years at Kaiser, and Fernando Bravo, 22 years, attend a one-day strike at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 23, 2022 as their union negotiates a new labor contract which includes staffing and wages. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

It's not just money. Unions are fighting for better schedules, safety and work conditions

Amazon is investing nearly $1 billion in the pay increase and other worker benefits, according to the company.

The announcement comes ahead of the busy holiday season for the e-commerce giant, and as rising inflation has more broadly been eroding Americans’ take-home pay.

The moves also come as Amazon has confronted labor organizing efforts at multiple warehouses, much of which was borne out of workers’ frustration with how the company treated them during the pandemic as well as increased national attention to racial justice and equity.

Workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, made history earlier this year when they voted to form the company’s first US labor union. Another union election at an Amazon facility near Albany, New York, is set to take place next month. These workers are seeking to unionize with the same grassroots worker group, Amazon Labor Union, that succeeded in Staten Island.

Through organizing efforts, Amazon workers have been seeking higher wages, job security, improved conditions at facilities and to have more of a voice in their workplace.

In addition to the wage increase, the company said Wednesday that it is expanding its pay access program, dubbed Anytime Pay, to all employees across its US operations. The program provides Amazon employees access to up to 70% of their eligible earned pay whenever they choose during the month, and without fees. Previously, most Amazon employees received their paychecks once or twice monthly.

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